Sunday, August 8, 2010

some things I'm loving this week



An excerpt...

"I generally begin working on a story in total ignorance, which I think is the ideal starting point for me, because only if you are truly ignorant can you ask the truly ignorant question. But I have only the foggiest idea of what the story is when I get started on it. And in fact, every story that I write, when I’m doing my reporting, I always come upon some information that completely destroys my concept for the story.
I think I know what the story is, and then I interview one more person, or I come across a document, or I see a video, or something, some piece of information that tells me, you know what, I’m wrong, I don’t get this. The initial response that I have when that happens is “Oh god, I’m screwed now. I’ve just wasted my time. I don’t get this all. The story’s gone all to hell.” But on a few moments of reflection or sometimes waking up the next morning, inevitably, the realization is, “Wait a minute. No, this story just got better.” Because my understanding of it has deepened. I have a much broader and different take on what happened than I had before."



An interesting article musing the ramifications of the twitter phenomena... I also loved this tweet that Mark Colvin sent to Leigh Sales when she posted a link to this article. He is referring to Penny's discomfort with trying to truthfully and authentically express herself within 140 characters:

don't all writers feel that way anyway? Always trying to compose 'life' into pleasing 'sentences', I mean. I fear I always have.



This lovely piece brings home to us that it's worth pursuing our dreams... after all, it just might work out.

It reminds me of the montage in (500) Days of Summer where Tom pulls himself together and decides to follow his passion. You know, the scene with the blackboard? Mmm, Joseph Gordon Levitt...




I was directed to this site by The Belle Lumiere. So far, she is my only friend - so please join!

It is basically a virtual bookshelf, where you can read and submit book reviews, see what your friends are reading and chat about literature in general. Fun!



Adé is brilliant but Billy Bell, the little guy up front, is just mesmerising.

6. My BPA-free drink bottle


So, there are all sorts of hidden dangers in most of our everyday items... Sarah Wilson knows a thing or two about it. I really don't. My first foray into truly "clean" living is this water bottle purchased for me by Andy's mum, who is also well-versed in all things health-related.

Just in case you are not aware (I wasn't either, until I googled it out of curiosity), BPA is a compound used in manufacturing plastics that can leach into our water and mess with our hormones. Scary, right?

Oh, and bottled water is bad, too... it just shows how important it is not to take popular trends for granted. We need to do our own research and find out the truth of what we are being told by the powers that be.

7. My new Willow dress


Purchased on sale, of course.

The other day I had somebody comparing it to the stunning gown Kiera Knightley wore in Atonement. I'm 99.9% sure that they were just being nice, but here it is for you to feast your eyes upon, anyway...


Just ignore the cigarette, okay?

6 comments:

Nat Kringoudis Melbourne said...

BPA is scary and definitely messes around with our bodies, including our fertility!
Oh and I LOVE the dress! Stunning.

Anonymous said...

Your blog's awesome!! Love it. <3

And "Mmm, Joseph Gordon Levitt..." - I share the same sentiment, darling. ;)

Laura Valerie said...

Oh thank you ladies!

Nat, I feel very ignorant about these sorts of things but I have made it my mission to try to educate myself. So many women I know have fertility issues and it's scary... I also saw on the news just today that some girls are hitting puberty at 7-years-old. Of course, there is the possibility that these issues have always existed but just haven't been talked about in the past, but it's more likely that our bodies are being affected by new technologies that have surfaced in recent decades. I have been keeping up with your blog - I have no children and don't intend on having them anytime soon so I don't feel as though I have anything to contribute - but I find it so valuable and interesting! Please keep it up xx

Anonymous said...

Love the dress, my ideal green!

And I NEED one of those bottles, where can I grab one from? I need to find a link that shows this product that you can put olive oil etc in that A) controls portion and B) is non aersol and nasty free of other things so you get the pure product

Anonymous said...

I love Billy Bell. I was so sad when he fell ill and couldn't compete in season 6 of SYTYCD. Looking forward to watching him in season 7 when it lands in my possession.

Laura Valerie said...

Thank you Loola! I think my mother-in-law bought it online, I will check for you though :) If you google it (BPA-free water bottle) you can easily find it. The brand is called Camel. I would love that link on the olive oil spray bottles!

Bec, the latest SYTYCD season is really great :) But there are a lot of injuries!